Cape Town - The South African Human Rights Commission has confirmed they will be visiting three prisons where solitary confinement exists.
The Judicial Inspectorate For Correctional Services (JICS) carried out a report on the infringement of human rights and released it to various departments, including the Department of Correctional Services for their response.
The report is based on visits to Ebongweni Super Maximum Correctional Centre, Kgosi Mampuru II C-Max Correctional Centre and Mangaung Public-Private Partnership Correctional Centre last year.
JICS said they discovered that an inmate spent 22 hours a day without human contact and one hour of exercise for 15 consecutive days.
They said in their findings that the conditions were harsh, and could lead to suicide and depression.
JICS argued that solitary confinement was against the Constitution’s section 30 of the Correctional Services Act of 111 of 1998.
SA Human Rights Commissioner, Chris Nissen, said they were given insight into the report and were planning a visit to the prisons for their own investigation.
He said solitary confinement had exceptions when prisoners made a request to be placed inside a single cell for safety reasons or sexual orientation or mental health issues.
“We have seen the report,” he said.
“You can be in a single cell if you demand it, due to fear of your life or when you want to be alone for sexual orientation or mental health issues. Solitary confinement, it is illegal.
“I have seen a case where a prisoner was a danger to himself by even setting himself alight and he had to be kept inside a single cell. We will be going to these Correctional Centres as a Commission,” he said.
JICS spokesperson Emerantia Cupido said prisoners were moved in the overnight transfers without procedures being followed. “Inmates sit alone in a single cell for 22-23 hours a day without stimulation or human contact. There is an hour of exercise – not with other inmates, but alone, in an isolated exercise cage.”
Food is provided through a slim post-box slot. The initial period of solitary confinement extends for at least six months.
“When inmates are transferred from Ebongweni to Kgosi-Mampuru II C-Max, as occurs, years of prolonged solitary confinement eventuate. JICS established that DCS transfers some inmates to these centres without following due process or meeting the criteria necessary for a lawful transfer.
“Some inmates are part of mass overnight transfers – or they are transferred for petty transgressions or simply on the basis of the length of their sentence. It follows that these centres may not necessarily house the most dangerous and violent inmates for which they were initially built,” Cupido said.
The report was also handed over to the Department of Correctional Services for their response.
Cupido said their response was as follows: “The facility is designed in such a way that inmates (are) incarcerated in solitary confinement for twenty-three hours and given one hour exercise, which is in accordance with the Standard Operating Procedures of the facility. It is anticipated that the concerns raised by JICS in respect of solitary confinement, will be considered in the aforementioned draft policy.”
“JICS welcomes meaningful engagement with the Department, the National Preventive Mechanism against torture (which the South African Human Rights Commission is coordinating), stakeholders and civil society.
“JICS has released these reports to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services and the Deputy Minister of Correctional Services.
Inspecting Judge for JICS, Edwin Cameron said they questioned how prisoners were chosen for solitary confinement.
Lawrence Venter, Regional Head: Corrections, Correctional Services: Western Cape region said his office could not comment as it was a discussion between the office of the Judicial Inspectorate and the National Commissioner’s office.
Weekend Argus